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Arakan Magazine – Issue 9/2024
Arakan Magazine – Issue 9/2024

In This Issue: 

  • Forgotten Generation: How Global Inaction is Pushing Rohingya Youth into Darkness
  • In Conversation with Dr. Ronan Lee
  • Understanding the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar
  • Rohingya Organisations Joint Statement on Naf River Massacre
  • Landslide Tragedy Strikes Rohingya Refugee Camp: Three Family Members Killed in Camp 14
  • Yunus’s Global Influence Could Help Secure Western Support for Rohingya Refugees, Says Expert
  • Press Release: United Youth Movement Bangladesh Sovereignty, Humanity, and Justice.
Arakan Magazine – Issue 8/2024
Arakan Magazine – Issue 8/2024

In This Issue: 

  • The Rohingya Genocide : A prolonged Crisis Unaddressed by Regional and International Communities
  • Rohingya Genocide Victim Women and Children: Severely Traumatized and Facing Catastrophic Consequences
  • In Conversation with Dr. Melanie O’ Brien
  • Maung Ni Massacre: Arakan Army Drone and Mortar Strikes Kill 36 Rohingya Civilians
  • 150 Rohingya Dead in Myanmar: Arakan Army Held Responsible for Devastating Drone Strike
  • Rohingya Relocation Sparks Concerns: Arakan Army’s Role in Changing Rakhine’s Demographic Landscape
  • Press Release: ARNA Condemn Aerial Attacks on Rohingya Communities in Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State​​​
  • Press Release: ARNO condemns Aerial Assault on Rohingya by Arakan Army

Latest News

ARNO condemns military build-up in Arakan, led by Myanmar Junta

09 November, 2023 The Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) has learned that the Myanmar military junta is deploying forces all over the Rakhine (Arakan) state in Burma. ARNO is not surprised that barely a week after visiting Bangladesh to assess the...

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Landmark visit by Ethnic and Religious Minority Groups from Burma

[NEW YORK – 23 OCTOBER] Representatives of a diverse cross-section of Burmese ethnic and religious minority groups, including representatives of the Rohingya, Burmese Muslim, Kachin, Chin, and Karen communities, concluded an important diplomatic visit to New York as...

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Assessment of the Annan Commission Recommendations

I. Introduction Recently, significant activity concerning the Rohingya repatriation to the Arakan have taken place between the Government of Bangladesh and the military junta in Myanmar. Parallel to these bilateral initiatives, many governments are beginning to...

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2 years after the Coup, the people of Burma are worse off

ARNO is saddened to continue to report that after two years of the coup which took place on February 1, 2021, by the Myanmar military (junta) that the conditions in Burma continue to deteriorate and have not improved. As the international community is aware, the...

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ARNO condemns Junta award to Wirathu, terrorist and genocidaire

Today the Myanmar military (junta) awarded Buddhist Monk, Wirathu, the honorific title “Thiri Pyanchi” for “his outstanding work for the good of the Union of Myanmar” as reported by the junta’s information teams and subsequently reported by international media...

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Press  Release

2 years after the Coup, the people of Burma are worse off

ARNO is saddened to continue to report that after two years of the coup which took place on February 1, 2021, by the Myanmar military (junta) that the conditions in Burma continue to deteriorate and have not improved. As the international community is aware, the...

ARNO condemns Junta award to Wirathu, terrorist and genocidaire

Today the Myanmar military (junta) awarded Buddhist Monk, Wirathu, the honorific title “Thiri Pyanchi” for “his outstanding work for the good of the Union of Myanmar” as reported by the junta’s information teams and subsequently reported by international media...

THE ROHINGYA GENOCIDE DAY WILL NOT AND CANNOT BE FORGOTTEN

(25 August 2022) The “Rohingya Genocide Day” of August 25 is a memorable day for our people and generations. For decades, the Myanmar brute forces and state-sponsored non-state actors have carefully pre-planned genocidal onslaughts against our innocent people....

Burma continues to suffer as a result of February 1, 2021 coup

February 1, 2022 The Arakan Rohingya National Organisation condemns the Tatmadaw’s illegal takeover of Burma/Myanmar since February 1, 2021.  The international community is aware that one year ago, Tatmadaw, the military junta of Burma, perpetrated a coup against Daw...

Press Release: REMEMBRING ROHINGYA GENOCIDE

25 August 2021 Today is a most memorable day for us, for our children and for our generations to come. On this day of August 25, 2017, the Burma/Myanmar brute forces, army, police and state-sponsored non-state actors and Buddhist Rakhine vigilantes started pre-planned...

Military Coup in Myanmar: Two steps forward 10 leaps back

Press Release: 4 February 2021 Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) condemns the military coup which has taken place in Myanmar on 1st February. The Rohingya were entirely disenfranchised throughout the entire election process and have lost all vestiges of...

Experts Writing

In Response to Rakhine People Protest against the BBC and demand apology: Arakan, the Epicentre of Refugee Production in the Region

By Abid Bahar

Lately, Rakhines of Arakan “Protest against the BBC and demand apology” for showing Rohingyas in the Burma map. But why apology? For showing the Rohingya homeland in Arakan? I understand that BBC knew all about the Rakhine-Rohingya problems and also that the ultranationalist Rakhine’s sucess in convincing the Burmese military to declare the Rohingyas as the noncitizens of Burma. Not surprisingly, showing the Rohingya existance in Arakan only flamed the racist fire. But the BBC was polite enough to not say openly that Arakan is the epicentre of refugee production in South Asia and South East Asia and it is the Rakhine-Moghs to blame..

A protest from a Rakhine historian against a press release on “Rohingya”

By Habib Siddiqui
 
Khin Maung Saw's thesis on trying to de-legitimatize the Rohingya history in Arakan is not new. For the last three years, as an obsessed, xenophobic Rakhine, much given to pen-pushing, and spread of hateful messages, he is known for trying his best to re-write history that would obliterate Rohingya's historicity in today's Arakan. His pseudo-history has been already refuted by others.

CSW visits Bangladesh-Burma border,

Interviews Rohingya refugees, saffron revolution monks and SPDC defectors. 09/09/2008Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) returned this week from a fact-finding visit to the Bangladesh-Burma border and is now calling on the international community to intensify...

Xenophobia: a brief analysis By Dr. Habib Siddiqui

 

By Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Dissident Voice
8/12/07

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Xenophobia as – fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign. As can be seen, for xenophobia there are two main objects of the phobia (fear). The first is a population group present within a society, which is not considered part of that society. Often they are recent immigrants, but xenophobia may be directed against a group which has been present for centuries. This form of xenophobia can draw out or facilitate hostile and violent reactions, such as mass expulsion of immigrants, or in the worst case, genocide. The second form of xenophobia is primarily cultural, and the objects of the phobia are cultural elements which are considered alien or foreign.

Xenophobic Burmese Literary Works – a Problem of Democratic Development in Burma

 ‘One blood, one voice, one command’. You cannot build unity with such a slogan especially when 40% of your population is different.-Harn Yawnghwe Director of the Brussels-based Euro-Burma Office.

This excerpt is from Abid Bahar’s book Burma’s Missing Dots-the Emerging Face of Genocide, Ch 2

For the past half a century, the uninterrupted military rule in Burma, characterized by xenophobia and oppression against minorities’ caused the eclipse of much of Burma’s people’s history. Minorities culturally and racially different from the dominating Burmans have been uprooted from their localities under the pretext of being “Kula,” ”Non natives,” or even outright "foreigners." Nowhere is it as serious as in the province of Arakan. Arakan's historic location between South Asia and South-East Asia makes it a “frontier culture” of two major ethnic groups, the Rakhines and the Rohingyas.  Here the problem persists between these two major ethnic groups. A survey of the mainstream Burmese literature shows common features of hate and xenophobia. Some of these works are so well-crafted that they could mislead casual readers of Arakan as seemingly academic works. In this chapter, the report of the survey is presented and the research concludes that the growing chauvinistic literary works have the potential to breed intolerance and aggression in society – factors that could contribute to producing more refugees to its neighboring states. The survey also notes that these beliefs and attitudes among the xenophobic intelligentsia could also be the antecedents to the problems facing democratic development in Burma.

Arakani King: A Lover or a Murderer of the Suja Family?

Abid Bahar
 
Rabindra Nath Tagore's short story Dalia is about the story of Shah Suja's daugher Amina and the king of Arakan. Shah Suja and his family were given the promise of assilyum in Arakan by the King and were also promised to be sent to Mecca. Thus, Suja began his unfortunate journey from Chittagong through the now called Shah Suja Road. As they arrived in Arakan, Suja's daughter Amina was asked to give marrage to the King. When refused, the entire family was massacred at the order of the King. All of Suja's children were brutally killed by axe.

The exodus has not stopped: Why Rohingyas continue to leave Myanmar

By Chris Lewa, Forum Asia, Bangkok

Delivered at the Medecins Sans Frontieres Conference:

“10 Years for the Rohingya Refugees: Past, Present and Future”

Dhaka – 1 April 2002

As long as the situation in Rakhine State does not show any fundamental improvement, Rohingya people will continue to enter and seek shelter in Bangladesh.  The refugees in the two remaining camps are only the visible side of an outflow that has never ceased.  Indeed, the exodus of Rohingya to Bangladesh has never stopped.  Every day, new Rohingya individuals and families continue to cross the border illegally and seek sanctuary in Bangladesh.  It is no longer a mass exodus, but a constant trickle.  This influx seems to be encouraged and at the same time strictly controlled by the Myanmar authorities, and concurrently it is rendered invisible by the Bangladesh administration.  New arrivals are denied access to the refugee camps, and these undocumented Rohingya have no other option than to survive among the local population outside the camps.  Their exact number is unknown.  An estimate of 100,000 has regularly been cited for several years now, which does not take into account the constant increase.  According to the local press, there may be as many as 200,000 living in the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf-Bandarban area and this amount appears to be more realistic.   They are not referred to as refugees but labelled as “economic migrants”. 

 

ISSUES TO BE RAISED CONCERNING THE SITUATION OF

ROHINGYA CHILDREN IN MYANMAR (BURMA)

SUBMISSION TO THE COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
For the Examination of the 2nd periodic State Party Report

 -MYANMAR-

November 2003

By Chris Lewa

Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child

FORUM-ASIA wishes to draw the attention of the Committee on the Rights of the Child to the situation of Rohingya children in Rakhine State, Myanmar[1], and hopes that these issues will be addressed during the examination of Myanmar’s second periodic report.

The Rohingya: Exclusion and discrimination

The Muslim population of Rakhine State, known as Rohingya[2] and closely related to the Chittagonian people of Southern Bangladesh, is being discriminated against on the basis of their ethnicity and religion.   They have been excluded from the nation-building process in Myanmar and the military regime has implemented policies of exclusion and discrimination against this group aimed at encouraging them to leave the country.  These systematic policies have maintained underdevelopment and have been the driving force behind two mass refugee exoduses to Bangladesh, in 1978 and again in 1991/92.  The combination of human right violations the Rohingya face — from the denial of legal status to restriction of movement and economic constraints — creates food insecurity and makes life in Northern Rakhine State untenable for many.

Rohingya children, in particular, are innocent victims suffering from the debilitating consequences of these government policies, which dramatically affect their physical and mental development, and will have long-lasting effects for the future of the Rohingya community.

 

Forced Migration in the South Asian Region: Displacement, Human Rights and Conflict Resolution

THE ROHINGYA:
FORCED MIGRATION AND STATELESSNESS
Chris Lewa[i],  

Paper submitted for publication in a book edited by Omprakash Mishra on "Forced Migration in South Asian Region", Centre for Refugee studies Jadavpur University, Calcutta and Brookings Institution Project on Internal Displacement.

28th February 2001In the eyes of the media and the general public, whether in Bangladesh or further afield, the situation of the Rohingya from Burma[ii] is usually referred to as a “refugee problem”.  Over the last two decades, Bangladesh has born the brunt of two mass exoduses, each of more then 200,000 people, placing them among the largest in Asia.  Each of these massive outflows of refugees was followed by mass repatriation to Burma.  Repatriation has been considered the preferred solution to the refugee crisis.  However, this has not proved a durable solution, since the influx of Rohingyas over international borders has never ceased.  And it is unlikely that it will stop, so long as the root causes of this unprecedented exodus are not effectively remedied.  The international community has often focussed its attention on the deplorable conditions in the refugee camps in Bangladesh, rather than on the root causes of the problem, namely the denial of legal status and other basic human rights to the Rohingya in Burma. This approach doubtless stems from the practical difficulty of confronting an intractable military regime which refuses to recognise the Rohingya as citizens of Burma, and of working out solutions acceptable to all parties involved. The actual plight and continuous exodus of the Rohingya people has been rendered invisible.  Though they continue to cross international borders, they are also denied the right of asylum, being labelled “economic migrants”.  The international community has preferred to ignore the extent of this massive forced migration, which has affected not only Bangladesh, but also other countries such as Pakistan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, etc.  Images Asia, Thailand

Northern Arakan/Rakhine State:a Chronic Emergency

 

By Chris LewaConsultant and Coordinator of the Arakan Project    Delivered at the Burma/Myanmar Forum 2006 A Conference organised by the European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS) Panel I – Challenges: Working in Burma/Myanmar    

Brussels, 29 March 2006


Northern Arakan State is one of the main pockets of acute poverty and vulnerability in Burma.  This region, adjacent to the border with Bangladesh, experiences what many refer to as a “chronic emergency” and there is an absolute consensus among the local population as well as humanitarian actors that international aid is, despite its limited impact, essential to avert a new mass outflow of refugees to Bangladesh. 

Asia’s new boat people

By Chris Lewa On 25 November 2007, a trawler and two ferry boats carrying some 240 Rohingyas being smuggled to Malaysia sank in the Bay of Bengal. About 80 survived; the rest drowned. A week later, another boat sank, allegedly fired at by the Burmese Navy. 150...

Rohingya History

The Crescent in Arakan

“The Crescent in Arakan “is a view of an Israeli expert Moshe Yegar of Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

 

Bengal – Arakan Relations: A Study in Historical Perspective

Dr. Mohamed Ali

 

Bengal and Arakan were two neighbouring countries; they are neighbour even now but under changed political setup. The Naf river is the border line between the two countries. The Arakanese chronicles claim that the kingdom was founded in the year 2666 B.C.1 For many centuries Arakan had been an independent Kingdom due to its geographical location with occasional short breaks .It was ruled by various legendary dynasties and they established capital in different places alternately transferring from one place to another; they are Dinnawadi ,Vesali, Pyinsa, Parin, Krit, Launggayet and Mrohaung ( Mrauk- U) . All these capitals were situated in the Akyab district on or near the river Lemru. The last line of rulers, i.e, kings of the Mrohaung dynasty and their relations with contemporary Muslim rulers of Bengal is the subject matter of our study.

Islam in Arakan: An interpretation from the Indian perspective: History and the Present

Dr. Swapna Bhattacharya (Chakraborti),

 

Introduction and Problematic: Reflections from Indian Perspectives

 

The history of Arakan or the Rakhine State ofMyanmar is matchless due to various, partly, very complex, factors. The foremost among the factors which makes the history of Arakan so complex, at the same time, unique, is the region's close contact with the Indian civilization. Unless the pulse of the interaction between the Buddhist world of Arakan and the Hindu-Buddhist civilization of India (especially Eastern  India)  with  Islam  of India  in  between  is  not  felt,  Arakan  remains unintelligible. 

Rohingya Culture

Myanmar leader says cleansing claims are ‘smear campaign’

AFP

Myanmar President denies Human Rights Watch report accusing the country of fueling ‘a campaign of ethnic cleansing’ against Rohingya Muslims

Myanmar President Thein Sein denied on Friday accusations of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims, saying the claims were part of a “smear campaign” against his government.

On a visit to Paris, Sein told France 24 television that his government was not guilty of the charges.

“Outside elements are just exaggerating, fabricating news, there is no ethnic cleansing whatsoever,” he said.

“This is a smear campaign against the government. What happened in Rakhine was not ethnic cleansing.”

In April, Human Rights Watch accused Myanmar of “a campaign of ethnic cleansing” against the Rohingya.

Government Matriculation Exam Results Announced, 80 Percent Fail

Sittwe: The military government announced yesterday the results of the matriculation exam for the 2007 – 08 school year, but 80 percent of students in Arakan State failed the exam, said an education worker in Sittwe.

He said, "No more than 20 percent of students in Arakan State passed the exam, and 80 percent failed this last matriculation exam."

EWOB/AEIOU is calling for New Students for 2009
 

………

To the Young, Poor, Intelligent and Dedicated Youths of Burma where ever you may be:-

 If you are age between 20 and 30 and do not belong to the 3 Gs  please read the following:-

[Guns; you must not be a relative of Lt. Colonel and above of the Burmese army. Gold; must obsess in Gold such as going to a third country for good or a crony of a Junta. Goons; must not belong to pro-military goons organizations (Kyant-Phut/SwanArrShin) that rough ride shot over the common people.] 

Rohingya Books

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